In restaurants and public areas generally floor surfaces have to be cleaned on a regular basis. This typically involves mopping the floor and then leaving the floor to dry prior to use of the cleaned floor area. Usually, the newly cleaned floor area is cordoned off until it dries to prevent persons walking on the floor whilst wet and possibly slipping on the wet floor. It will be appreciated that this is very inconvenient, particularly in a restaurant for example, in that portions of the premises are unavailable for use for extended periods. Similarly, where spillages occur these have to be cleaned up and the floor left to dry over a period, again with the wet floor area cordoned off which interrupts the smooth flow of customers about the premises.
In the prior art WO 01/82766 disclosed a robotic floor mopping apparatus with motorised scrolling of a cleaning web between a feed roller and a take-up roller. In WO 97/03598 there is disclosed a dryer in which a drying web is scrolled between a supply roller and a take-up roller. Pawls engage rachette wheels at an end of each roller to prevent rotation of the rollers. Selective disengagement of the pawls is possible by manipulation of the handle of the apparatus and by tilting the apparatus so that an operative can advance the web between the supply roller and the take-up roller when desired. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,699 a floor cleaning device is disclosed having a removable cleaning cassette. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,609 a floor cleaner is disclosed having a cleaning cloth which is scrolled between two rollers by a drive motor continuously at low speed while operating the floor cleaner.